Flare
by TrainerOfTheFarRealm
Summary: In Unova, a teen wakes up on his 13th birthday to start his Pokémon journey. Setting out with a starter that is far too curious for his own good, he begins his travels on the path to become a Champion. Along the way he finds himself stuck in a battle that he didn't want to take part in, one between truth and ideals that has chosen for him to be the one to see the truth.
1. Chapter 1: Birthday Bash

**Disclaimer: I do not own ****Pokèmon**

The early morning quiet that surrounded Nuvema Town was slowly broken by bird cries and the stirring of the town's inhabitants. Out of these inhabitants, four returned to consciousness with a growing feeling of excitement as the day they were waiting for had finally come.

Blair awoke to a sleep-induced fog slowly lifting itself as he slowly stretched while pulling himself out of bed. A quick look at the calendar quickly shakes the early-morning slowness as he remembers the date. He mutters a "Happy Birthday " to himself in the mirror as he rushes to pull on all his clothes, realizing quite quickly why the day was so important this year. It was the day he was to get his starter Pokèmon and be allowed to set off on his journey, his thirteenth birthday.

Several years ago, the Unova League had looked over the numbers of injuries from young trainers and altered the rules around starting your journey so that new trainers would have more knowledge of what they were doing. With the altered standards, teens had to wait until they were at least thirteen years of age before being allowed a trainer's license and the ability to travel the region alone. Due to being the youngest of the Nuvema kids by age, Blair's birthday ended up being chosen as the date that all the kids would be granted starters.

After finishing up the rushed attempt of clothing himself, Blair runs downstairs to the kitchen to grab some form of breakfast on his own. Since his mother had already had to go to work early in the morning so she would be back to see him off on his journey, he ended up throwing something together from what was in the cupboard and was just cleaning the dishes when he heard the doorbell ring. Jumping up from his seat and running to the door, he opens it to the sight of two of the other kids that would also be getting their starter Pokèmon today.

Cheren and Bianca were some of the only kids that lived nearby in Blairs age-range, leading to the three growing up playing together and being close friends. Cheren and Blair had also been competing for the top spot in the Trainer's exam the three had taken just a few weeks earlier, with Cheren just barely edging out Blair in the end.

Grinning as he walks out the door Blair gets an enthusiastic welcome from Bianca, and a calmer though no less friendly one from Cheren. Blair greets both in turn then asks "Guess it's already time to head to the lab then?".

Bianca enthusiastically replies, "Yup! Professor Juniper sent us here to make sure you didn't sleep in and miss your special day!"

Blair grins in response, knowing his tendency to sleep through his alarm was one he hadn't managed to get rid of and tells the girl "Well, I was perfectly able to get myself up. It's not like I would miss this day when we've been waiting two years for it to come, now would I?".

The trio of friends then starts on their short walk to the Professor's laboratory, located near to the small town's outskirts. Small talk chatters throughout the air as the three discuss what time of starters they would want and what they would catch once they start journeying throughout the region. Bianca chatted about how she was fine with any kind of starter, though the two boys both knew she would zone in on the one she considered the cutest. On the other end of the spectrum, Cheren had set his heart on getting an Oshawott as his first companion and was the only one of the three to have decided beforehand on which of the starters they would pick.

Blair started to ponder on the topic of starters, letting his thoughts drift to the cheerful banter of his friends. The Unova Pokèmon League had a set three starters that were bred by certified specialists to be handed out to apprentice trainers just beginning their time as a trainer. These were members of the standard elemental triad of fire, water, and grass, the trademark types that professionals handed out to beginners. In Unova, these consisted of the fire-type Tepig, the grass-type Snivy, and the water-type Oshawott.

Of the three, Snivy was the one Blair considered himself the least likely to pick. When fully trained, they evolve into the serpentine pokémon Serperior. An odd mix of defensive bulk combined with high speed makes fighting alongside one the elusive serpents a hard task to adapt to for many new to the craft. Though this isn't to say it isn't strong, as it has many ways to alter the battle's floe to its advantage. The most dangerous users of the species Blair had heard of had even been able to take advantage of the evolutionary line's biology to enhance the strength of the serpent when normal ones of its species would have been weakened from energy adaption.

Next of the three was Tepig, which Blair found some interest in. If trained by a competent and kind trainer, it could be one of the most loyal of companions a person could find when on their journey. When at its highest potential, its evolved form of Emboar is an incredibly powerful source of offense on any team. With an ability to learn versatile set of moves unheard of for most similar fire types, and the innate power to back up that move pool Emboar would easily slot into most teams.

The last of the elemental trio was Oshawott, which seemed incredibly tempting to Blair. A strong physical warrior, that evolved into the mighty Samurott. A versatile fighter with twin blades, Samurott is a bit of a jack-of-all-trades in terms of abilities. That versatility, combined with less weaknesses than the other commonly obtained starters, leads to it being an ace in combat. If Cheren hadn't already staked his claim on the otter, Blair probably would have picked up the small pokèmon for himself.

As it was, Blair planned on just picking whichever starter was left behind due to his lack of preference. The only way that would change would be if one of them stood out compared to the other, in a way that would make Blair want to claim it for himself.

Blair was broken from his reverie when Bianca gasped, letting him come back to his senses just in time to notice they were in front of the laboratory. Letting a small smile come to his face as the three entered, getting let deeper into the professor's domain by one of the lab assistants.

The group soon found themselves face to face with the region's top researcher and inhabitat of Nuvema Town, Professor Juniper. As the primary professor of the region, a title she took over from her grandfather, Professor Juniper has the duty of handing out starters to beginning trainers once they get their license.

The woman looks up at them as they stumble their way through the various technological marvels set up throughout the room with a tired smile. Blair realizes upon seeing her that she looked like she hadn't slept a full night for several days. Upon that fact reaching his consciousness, Blair realizes the reason. The migrations of foreign Pokèmon to the region.

Starting several years ago, large migrations of Pokèmon that were native to other regions to Unova became increasingly common. These migrations caused massive upheavals in the local ecosystems to the point where the professors were forced to step in an attempt to balance the changing populations before any foreign species hunted the local ones to extinction.

Professor Juniper stepped forward, beckoning the young teens closer as she started to speak. "Ah! So you three are ready for your starters then?"

The three teens rush an agreement through their mouths in their impatience to finally get to start their journeys. The professor gives them another tired grin before addressing their enthusiastic responses. "Well, there is a slight problem with that…"

Blair felt a dreadful feeling rush through his body as Cheren spoke up, "Are we still going to get our starters?"

"Yes, I will have to find a replacement starter for one of you though. Another child came through a couple of hours ago and chose the Snivy that would have been offered to one of you, but since he got sent here when the breeder he was getting a starter for was out I let him take it."

The cold feeling that had been creeping up Blair's spine slowly faded as he let out a sigh of relief. So they would all be getting to start their journey today.

"So, which one of you three is willing to wait a bit longer while I go and figure something out?"

As Bianca and Cheren started to exchange glances with each other and Blair, Blair began to steel his resolve and spoke up. "I'll wait."

Juniper nods at him and leads Bianca, Cheren, and Blair farther into the lab where two Pokèballs sat, one with a flame symbol and the other with a water drop. Cheren confidently goes up to the one bearing a water drop and picks it up. Bianca hesitantly goes up to the other and grabs it.

Cheren calmly activates the Pokèball, releasing the small white otter that was inside it before kneeling down to talk to it. Bianca does the same and is quickly occupied with cooing at the small orange pig that was stored inside. Blair soon finds himself leaning against the nearby wall, watching his two friends as the professor walks out to work in the back of the lab.

After waiting for over a half-hour, Professor Juniper returned holding 4 objects. Three rectangular devices and a Pokèball with a black crescent moon emblazoned upon it. She gets the attention of the three teens and starts to explain things to them. "These," she says as holds up the rectangles of metal, "are Pokèdexes for the three of you. As you know, they contain large amounts of information that you will find useful for your travels."

The professor walks towards Cheren and Bianca, handing one device to each of them. Before stopping in front of Blair and handing him both the last Pokèdex and the Pokèball. "This is the only one left in the breeders, and while it isn't a normal starter it should be strong enough to take the role of one."

Blair takes the Pokèball and releases the Pokèmon stored inside it. The energy stream produces soon forms into an unfamiliar creature, a quadruped with black hair growing over it and blue skin with red markings on its torso. The black hair forming into a spike on its head and covering the area its eyes would be in. Blair looks questioningly towards the professor. Before he can voice his confusion she answers his unspoken question. "This little one is a Deino, though I can understand where your confusion is coming from as not many people get to see one. You might have heard of its evolved form though. Does the name Hydreigon ring any bells for you?"

Blair looks down in awe, remembering the rare challenger of the Ventress Conference skilled enough to tame one of the mighty dragons… "Wait! You got me a dragon?"

Juniper gives the boy a slight smile. "The only breeder who provides starters that still had anything left was the Opelucid City provider. They traditionally grant their trainees dragons upon starting their journey."

She then turns to address the other two while Blair gets down on his knees before the small dragon, which had started to sniff around the room out of curiosity. Realizing it couldn't see him, Blair cleared his throat and put his hand down in front of the Deino. It started sniffing his hand, before nipping at it. Pulling his hand back and chuckling, Blair starts to talk with his new partner.

"Hey, little one." The Deino 'looks' up, despite its lack of sight.

"My name's Blair, and I'm a Pokèmon trainer. Do you want to be my partner?"

The Deino tilts his head in a sign of confusion.

"I need a strong Pokémon to fight with me, and if you choose to travel with me I'll make you the strongest Hydreigon I possibly can."

"Dein!" The dragon starts to yap in excitement.

Blair smiles down at Deino, "I think the two of us will get along just fine. Now, let's check the dex to see what it says about you "

Holding the black machine pointing at Deino and slotting its pokéball into the slot, Blair activates the scanner.

_Deino, the Irate Pokèmon. When it encounters something, its first urge is usually to bite it. If it likes what it tastes, it will commit the associated taste to memory._

_This Deino is a Male with the Hustle ability and knows the moves Tackle, Dragonbreath, Focus Energy, and Earth Power._

Grinning at the little creature as it starts to examine the surroundings, bumping into Blair and the lab tables, Blair starts to imagine the strength his new friend will have in time. Tapping Deino on the head, Blair once more addresses the baby dragon.

"Hey Deino, do you want a name?" The little dragon lets out a confused whine from its spot bumping into a table leg. "Something I can call you that only you would answer too, something more personal than Deino."

Deino stumbles over from his exploration to stand in front of Blair, who had decided to sit down to be on the same level as the dragon. Deino bumps his hand against Blairs outstretched palm one last time and gives him an affirmative growl. Blair goes through a list of names, with Deino denying every one while sitting on Blairs lap. Noticing his preference for more regal names, like King or Czar, and finally gives him a name fitting for the royal dragon he would become.

"How does Kaiser sound to you?"

The newly-named Kaiser hops up, nipping at different parts of his partner's outfit, before going back to his exploration with a new pep in his step.

Standing back up and walking over to find his friends, with Kaiser stumbling around in his path with unrestrained energy and curiosity. Blair makes his way over, before turning around at the sound of a painful yelp from Kaiser. He finds the dragon had ended up in one of the edges of the room with his teeth chomping into a cable. Sighing in exasperation, Blair walks over to Kaiser and checks the curious dragon over before getting Kaiser to follow him. Kaiser managed it with moderate difficulty due to the lack of sight but managed to follow Blair's smell as they walked.

Realizing that his friends had already headed out of the lab, Blair thanks Professor Juniper and leads Kaiser out through the halls. He managed to get back outside with some difficulty, mostly stemming from Kaiser's desire to wander off into every place he could get into, but the two make their way outside. Blair sees his friends standing on opposite sides of a field with their starters between them

Going over to Cheren and Bianca with Kaiser in tow, Blair looks over the two starters they chose. Cheren, of course, got his Oshawott, which was pridefully looking over Bianca's starter and finding it wanting. Bianca's starter of course was a Tepig, cheerfully bouncing around between Bianca and the Oshawott despite several bruises starting to form on it. Finally being noticed by his two friends, they smile over and look curiously at Kaiser.

Smiling proudly, Blair starts talking to the duo. "Meet Kaiser, my starter."

Bianca asks "What is he? I haven't ever seen anything like him around here."

Smugly, Blair tells them about Kaiser. "He's a Deino. Guess what type he is?"

Cheren seems to search his memory for a second, likely trying to remember where he had heard that name before. "Wait. Isn't Deino a Dark-Dragon type?" He asks in disbelief.

"Yup! I couldn't believe it when the professor said it either. Now, I believe we had been planning something to do now for the last few weeks?"

Bianca gasped as she remembered. "Oh Yeah! The battle, Cheren and I already had ours and I forgot that you were still in there. Cheren kicked my but of course."

Blair addresses the two with a teasing tone. "Well, who wants to be my opponent first, seeing as you guys couldn't wait for me."

Bianca blushes at the minor rebuke, while Cheren rolls his eyes and speaks up. "Why don't you and Bianca go first? I'll wait for you."

"You just want to see our fighting style before you have to face it." Blair retorts.

"Possibly." Cheren agrees with no shame, before calling for Oshawott to go with him to one of the sides of the field.

Blair walks over to the side of the field Cheren had formerly occupied and gets Kaiser onto the field while talking to him.

"Hey Kaiser, ready for a battle?"

Kaiser starts to bounce happily and readies himself as Bianca has Tepig get into position.

Blair gives Kaiser a manic grin that the dragon can't see, the excitement getting his blood pumping.

It was time for his first battle, and he wasn't going to lose.

**AN: Hello folks! Welcome to Flare, my first array into the world of writing that doesn't leave me cringing just looking at it! This fic was inspired by a variety of works that I had read that built a lot on the world of Pok****èmon, like Traveler by The Straight Elf, and I had the idea to do one based on the plot of ****Pok****èmon ****Black and White. Any suggestions or ideas you have for this would be appreciated, as only a bit of this is set in stone.**


	2. Chapter 2: Rivals, On Your Mark

**Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Pokemon**

**Chapter 2: Rivals, On Your Marks...**

Cheren decides that he would count down the battle to start it properly.

"3"

Blair's mind starts racing as he thought up and discarded different ideas on how to fight the opponent before him. Though he knows that Hydreigons aren't primarily physical fighters, lacking normal limbs tends to do that, he is unsure rather or not Deinos are the same way.

"2"

Deciding to test the waters first to see what Kaiser could do, Blair prepared to bark out a command to Kaiser.

"1"

Looking over at Bianca showed him that she looked nervously at the field before her.

"Go!"

"Kaiser, Tackle!"

"Oh! Dodge it Tepig!"

The Tepig attempted to avoid Kaiser, who shot forward like a bullet after the command was given to him. The Tepig managed to dodge the clumsy tackle and shot a small burst of fire at Kaiser.

Frowning, Blair decides to test out the more curious move on Kaiser's Dex entry.

"Earth Power."

Blair watches as Kaiser slams a leg into the ground, and the ground next to Tepig bursting into a tiny geyser. Though not quite on target, and Blair realizes aiming is going to be a constant struggle for a creature that can't see at that moment, it still manages to land and glancing blow on the Tepig's leg.

"Um… Tackle Tepig!"

Tepig charges forward, slightly limping from the painful attack he had been struck by, and runs straight towards Kaiser. Blair realizes something and a grin appears on his face as he calls out his next command.

"Kaiser, Dragon Breath. Straight ahead."

Kaiser followed the command to a T, as a thin, flickering stream of pink energy bursts from his open maw and colliding straight into the charging fire type. Stunned by the energy blast slamming into its head, it stumbles to a stop and slams into the dirt. Grinning at the success, Blair gives another command to attempt to finish the fight.

"Kaiser, Tackle."

Flying forward, likely following his sense of smell, Kaiser slams into the dazed Tepig at high speeds and sending Tepig flying backward across the field. Tepig lands and Blair can see from his side of the field that the last attack knocked it unconscious.

"Battle over, Blair wins." Cheren declares from his position on the sidelines.

Bianca rushes over to check over and heal Tepig as Kaiser bounces his way back over to Blair. Grinning, Blair leans down and pats Kaiser on the head while pulling out a potion for the minor burns that Tepig managed with its Ember.

"Good job Kaiser. Are you up for another fight?" Blair says as he heals the burn.

An affirmative grunt is the response, and Blair looks up to see Cheren taking his place on the other side of the field. He gets Kaiser's attention and got him back into position. Bianca took Cheren's place as the referee for the match and started the countdown.

"3"

Cheren stared over the field neutrally, as Oshawottt grinned smugly at Kaiser from across the battlefield.

"2"

Blair tensed as he tried to think of a plan, cursing the fact he hadn't looked too deeply into what Oshawott's could do after Cheren claimed the starter.

"1"

"Go!"

"Kaiser, Tackle."

Once more the dragon fired himself across the field in a blur of speed, into the water type that had yet to move an inch from his starting position. Blair looked in time to notice the smirk starting to form across Cheren's face.

"Detect, Oshawott. Then tackle."

Blair watched with dread as a red gleam made its way into the eye of the water type, as Detect took hold. The water type used the enhanced perception granted to avoid the attack with ease, before shoulder-checking Kaiser into the dirt. He grimaces. He's surprised that a starter even had that move. He mentally changes courses and attempts to get himself an advantage.

"Kaiser, Focus Energy."

Blair watches the white energy seep through Kaiser's body as it enhanced his strength before declaring his next command moments after Cheren's own.

"Tackle again Oshawott."

"Dragon Breath and spin."

Blair watches in relief as Kaiser prevents Oshawott from approaching with the spiraling pink wave that surrounds him from the breath weapon.

"Stop and Earth Power him. Keep doing it till he stops"

Another small geyser appears beneath Oshawott just as it had in the last battle, slamming into him with the erupting earth.

"Oshawott, approach him. Don't let him get another hit in."

And suddenly the blue otter is dashing forward towards Kaiser, avoiding the next two Earth Powers with the gleam of Detect glowing in its eye. Noticeably tired from the exertion of rapid Detects, it manages to catch its breath quickly and slam into Kaiser with a Tackle.

And then it repeated that pattern as Kaiser attempted to get a Tackle in against Oshawott. Kaiser was unable to get more than a glancing blow on the fast water type.

Grimacing, Blair's mind starts racing as he throws any plans he has out the window in an effort to find a way to defeat his evasive opponent. He knows he needs to find a way to slow it down, but it's too close to hit it with anything but melee attacks. A smile comes to his face as he gets an idea, that just might work. Blair waits for the next time Oshawott slows down before barking a quick command and praying it would work.

"Kaiser! Bite him and don't let go!"

Kaiser followed the orders and chomped onto the Oshawotts shoulder in one of its more vulnerable moments.

"Shake him off, Oshawott!" Cheren yells while frowning across the field, obviously unsure of what Blair is trying.

"Use Dragon Breath without letting go," Blair says while a slight grin appears on his face.

At that very moment, just as Oshawott starts frantically shaking to detach Kaiser from his shoulder, a burst of draconic energy bursts out of Kaiser's jaws. Held inward by the bite, it goes straight down into the shoulder of Oshawott moments before Kaiser gets shoved off. But it was too late, as Blair's plan had already worked.

Oshawott now had a bite-shaped burn marking on his shoulder, on an arm hanging limply at his side as pink sparks go off it. The Dragon Breath had done its job, and the draconic energy was messing with the nervous system and paralyzing Kaiser's opponent. Though it didn't happen without a cost.

Kaiser was now feeling the brunt of all the attacks Oshawott had hit him with and appeared to be barely standing. Though with his arm useless and his leg starting to go numb as the energy spread, it was clear Oshawott couldn't do much to attempt to finish Kaiser off.

It was time to finish it.

"One last Dragon Breath Kaiser."

The breath weapon was flickering in and out and off-center, but it still struck true and caused Oshawott to collapse.

"Blair is the winner!"

Giving a relieved sigh as he goes over to his barely standing partner, Blair pulls out Kaiser's Pokéball. "You did good Kaiser, get some rest."

After returning Kaiser Blair walks over to Cheren, who was breaking up a revive and pouring the powder into the mouth of Oshawott. Bianca dashes over to the two with her Tepig rushing up right behind her.

Blair waits for Cheren to return the newly-awakened Oshawott to his Pokéball before talking to his friends. "Good match to both of you. Cheren, I'm not surprised you somehow noticed Kaiser's big weakness before I did."

And it was a big weakness. Kaiser's movepool really prevented him from doing much to opponents like Oshawott. While in theory Tackle would be able to handle close-quarters combat, it was strongest when Kaiser had a running start to increase the speed of the attack and making it less useful when stuck still in combat. Kaiser's current hold over Earth Power made it only good for precision, which for a creature relying on smell was nigh impossible from a distance, and also made it impossible to use in close range without hitting himself. Dragon Breath takes a bit of a charge up, which gives an opponent close enough to see the signs enough time to easily dodge it. Blair knows the Kaiser's training is going to be hard on both of them, but he already sees a clear way for his partner to improve.

Cheren sighs before responding."Didn't help me much though, seeing as you still won."

"Don't get depressed on us now Cheren, you know for a fact that would have worked if not for me pulling a winning strategy out of my hindquarters. " Blair scolds.

"Yea! You did great in the battle, both of you did!" Bianca chimes in.

Blair decides to distract his moody friend with a change of topic.

"Anyways, how in the world did your Oshawott know Detect! That just came out of nowhere, and most starters would have passed out trying to use it as often as he did in that fight. I remember that the burst of speed it gives users would wear them down ridiculously fast."

Cheren scoffs at him. "So you did actually remember something from that class, I was starting to have my doubts."

Blair rolls his eyes. "Yes, lord your academic superiority over your idiot best friends. I still whooped you in the practical exam."

Cheren glares at him. "Just because you're better performing under pressure without any time to prep doesn't make you the better battler."

"Are you still annoyed at that test? Because having to battle a classmate with randomly supplied Pokemon and having to think up tactics on the fly made sense for the exam. Also, you ignored my actual question."

"Fine, I am not getting in that argument with you again. The reason Oshawott has it is that he was born with it. According to Professor Juniper, all the normal starters this year had something similar."

Bianca chimes in after that. "Really? Tepig didn't show me any special moves like your Oshawott did."

Cheren raises an eyebrow at her. "Did you scan your Tepig to check?"

She blushes. "I forgot to do it in all the excitement of meeting him."

She pulls out her Pokèdex and places Tepig's Pokèball into the scanning slot. The device reads out Tepig's information.

_Tepig, the Fire Pig Pokèmon. It can deftly dodge its foe's attacks while shooting fireballs from its nose. It roasts berries before it eats them. _

_This Tepig is a Male with the Thick Fat ability and knows the moves Tackle, Tail Whip, and Ember._

A moment of quiet follows that statement before Cheren breaks it.

"Huh. I didn't even know they had the option of having that ability."

"Neither did I, must be really rare," Blair says in confusion, before sighing.

"Cheren, I'm pretty sure the two of us need to go back to the lab to get our Pokemon checked out before we go back so our parents can see us off."

"Ok, I have to go do some last-minute packing. You two better not leave without me!" Bianca says before running off back towards her house, her two friends chuckling behind her at her inability to get all her stuff ready beforehand.

And with that, the duo turned back towards the lab to heal their partners while exchanging good-nature snipes at each other's prowess. They find an medical area inside and finish healing their starters.

Afterward, the two teens walk the distance back towards their homes, with Oshawott walking beside Cheren and Kaiser sleeping in his Pokéball due to fatigue. Blair thinks it was probably better that way because Kaiser would likely have run off and forced him to chase the dragon around until Blair could convince him to follow him back to Blair's house.

Arriving at the road before their houses, the two see their parents waiting outside for them. Bianca is slightly farther down the street, seemingly saying goodbye to her mother as she prepares to walk over to them. Cheren crosses the street to walk over to his parents in their yard while Blair walked over to his mom, who was standing in front of their house and smiling at him.

A sad smile comes across her face as she looks over Blair, ready and impatient to leave. "Guess it's finally time for my little blackbird to leave the nest?"

Blair, with his enthusiasm tempered by his mother's sadness at seeing him go, talks solemnly. "I couldn't stay here forever, but I'll be back. I won't leave you alone."

"I know you won't, and I know I can't keep you here. You've been waiting for this moment for more than three years, I can handle an empty house for a couple of months."

Blair goes and gets one last hug from his mother before leaving.

She speaks up just as he is walking away. "Just… stay safe, will you? I wouldn't be able to handle it if anything happened to you."

"Of course I'll be safe, I have Kaiser to watch my back. You don't need to worry about a thing."

And with that, Blair walked over to the area his two friends had commandeered to wait in while he finished his goodbyes.

Smiling at the two, Blair speaks up. "Ready?"

Bianca dives back into her back to assure herself she didn't forget anything before nodding.

Cheren simply states, "I've been ready for months."

Bianca, finally assured she had all her belongings, rushed forward toward the route with each hand pulling along one of her friends. After a few minutes of being nearly dragged along, the three are standing at the mouth of the road, where it opens up and spreads out. Giving the two boys a minute to compose themselves from the near sprint they were in, she looks out over the area before getting an idea.

"Hey guys, why don't we have a competition."

The second the boys here the word competition, their heads snap up from their position of being doubled over panting. Blair speaks up first between the two.

"Two things. One, we didn't need to all-out sprint out of town like we were being chased out, and two, what kind of competition."

"Since we're all gonna end up in the place anyway, why don't we split up and compare catches when we meet up? As long as you two don't run off ahead we'll probably get to Acumula Town 'round the same time anyway."

Blair nods his head at that. "Not the worst idea you've ever had, and I wanted some time to train up Kaiser without a nosy rival watching."

Cheren snorts. "It's not like I'd get any benefit from your training anyway."

Bianca interrupts the two with a pout. "No no no, no fighting! Didn't you two already get this out of your system."

Cheren rolls his eyes. "We're not being hurtful, no need to step in now. Wait till we are punching each other before that happens."

Bianca looks at him dubiously. "You don't even know how to throw a punch, much less actually hit Blair."

The statement knocks the wind from his sails and causes him to start sulking as Blair and Bianca high five.

Recovering, Cheren addresses his friends. "If you are all done mocking my athleticism or lack thereof, let's start this competition."

Deciding to cut the teen a break, his friends agreed and they quickly split off onto their own paths. After several hours of walking, with the few Pokémon he encountered running quickly at the sound of his approach and not getting close enough for him to capture, he finds himself in a small grove of trees and berry bushes. Pulling out Kaiser's Pokéball, Blair releases his partner. Kaiser immediately starts sniffing around, finding the new area incredibly interesting. Blair smiles and, noticing the sun setting within the next hour, goes to set up a tent while keeping an eye on the excitable dragon.

After completing his task, he calls the hyperactive dragon back to the clearing. Kaiser returns moments later, twigs stuck in his fur and his mouth stained red with what appeared to be berry juice.

Blair smiles with exasperation clear in his features. "Seems like you already ate Kaiser. Are you still hungry?"

Kaiser starts to bounce up and down as Blair places a food bowl of Pokémon food down in front of the hungry dragon before he pulls out his own packaged rations to eat. The two eat in silent companionship, surrounded by the wild. Blair decides to multitask and pulls out his Pokédex to search over the moves that his partner could learn. Searching the list, the one that seemed like it would be the most useful would be to teach him would be Bite, which his line tends to learn with incredible ease and would fill the niches of being both a useful close-quarters attack and as a Dark-type attack for the dragon to use. Marking it down to come back to, he stood up and called Kaiser over to in front of one of the berry bushes that was dotted with ripe red berries.

"Ok Kaiser, time to train."

Kaiser whined in confusion.

"We have to practice to get you to grow stronger, so we're going to play a game."

"I'm gonna throw these berries, and you have to find them and either attack them or eat them, ok?"

Kaiser nods rapidly and the two start training. Blair figured that this would be a good way to train Kaiser, due to it being both enjoyable and hopefully improving Kaiser's accuracy. Blair then watches as slowly, Kaiser got better at locating the berries as he adjusted to his sense of smell towards things that were moving quickly. After noticing the decent amount of improvement Kaiser was making, he decided to have him switch to shooting Dragon Breaths at the thrown berries as quickly as possible. After an hour, which had cut down the wind-up time of the attack to only a second rather than the three to four it previously had been at.

Noticing how tired Kaiser was becoming from the constant attacks, he sits with his back to one of the bigger trees and calls him over to his lap. After Kaiser sat down, Blair started threading his fingers through the dragon's fur as he worked to remove the twigs and knots from his fur. Eventually, Kaiser's breath evened out as he fell asleep. Blair decides he might as close his eyes for a few minutes before trying to get out from under the dragon, and was soon out like a light.

The next morning arrived, and Blair woke up to a back that was killing him and a sleepy dragon that was yawning as Kaiser attempted to remember how his legs work long enough to get out of Blair's lap. Smiling, Blair helped to untangle Kaiser before standing up and starting to put away the completely useless tent while Kaiser dug into a newly refilled bowl of chow mixed with the rest of the berries Blair had picked for training yesterday.

After finishing the two set out walking to continue their walk through the route, with Blair eating a protein bar for a quick breakfast as Kaiser follows behind eagerly sniffing things and occasionally running ahead. Blair, keeping his eye out for any interesting possible additions to his team, is disappointed when the only one that he sees are the Pidoves scared off of tree branches as the two march onwards.

Finding himself at the front entrance of Accumula town, Blairs ends up being disappointed at the lack of anything to catch. Annoyed at the almost-certain loss in the competition he walks inside to the town proper, warning Kaiser not to run off in the town much larger than his own. The two find their way into town proper, with Blair deciding to skip the Pokémon Center due to it not yet being necessary, the duo soon finds themselves with something they can due to pass the time until Bianca and Cheren arrive.

They walk towards the large green building, with panes of windows lining all sides of the building and go towards the entrance with a smile appearing on Blair's face as he realizes what he is looking at. The two head through the sliding doors into the air-conditioned room inside with Blair becoming excited.

It was the first time he had ever been to one of the Battle Clubs, of course he was excited!

**Author's Note**  
**This chapter killed me you know, it was supposed to be quite a bit longer and include another event or two but then I realized I should get a chapter out within the next couple days. Now I have a few things to say/ask to you guys who are reading this**

**First: Thanks to all of you who were encouraging me in the last chapter's reviews, I really appreciated it.**

**Second: On the topic of catching more team member, I figured that less would probably be more here? I don't plan on throwing a bunch of one-note team members in, but he WILL still get more than six by his 8th badge. Also, would I be correct in saying that it is more preferable to not replicate types throughout any of his captures? I don't want any team members getting overshadowed due to there being another member with the same type in his options, at least not if they are too similar. **

**Third: ****Though he didn't catch anything this chapter, Blair will be gaining another team membe by Chapter 4 AT THE LATEST, and more likely in the next chapter**

**Fourth: I need some outside opinions on the topic of one of the later possible team member. I have two options (though I won't be saying any specifics now) for that team member I am divided on. I want to put up a question to the readers then.**

**Do you want Blair to get a Grass Type or a Poison Type first?**

**I don't want him to get both as they both are quite similar in function, but I'm unsure of which one to use. I do have a preferance, but that is less the one that is objectively the better fit and more that I used one in a Nuzlocke and it was a major member of my team. I just want to hear from you, the readers, what your opinion would be.**

**Thanks for all your support, and please leave any suggestions you have in the reviews!**


	3. Chapter 3: Variables

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon**

**Chapter 3: Variables**

Walking into the high-tech building, Blair was immediately set upon with large amounts of advanced training tools through open doors. and several computers set up in the lobby. He doesn't get much time to process the appearance due to a muscled man walking out from one of the separate rooms that comes to greet him.

"Welcome to the Accumula Town Battle Club trainer! Is this your first time visiting?"

"Yeah, I just got to town and after I saw this place I figured I would see what I'd need to use the training grounds here."

The man, who introduces himself as the owner Don George, walks Blair through the steps of checking his trainer I.D and being granted access to the various training tools. After a few minutes of filling out forms, Blair was free to make use of the machines at this location and at any other Battle Club he might visit.

He led Kaiser into a training area, full of equipment but empty of people. He sat on a chair keeping an eye on his companion who started to sniff around the massive cluttered room they were in. He pulled out the Pokédex and started searching it for something new to teach Kaiser. He needed something that was both simple for Kaiser to learn and would fill in some of the gaps in his combat abilities. Looking up every so often from his research, to confirm that Kaiser hadn't bitten into anything expensive and seeing him do nothing worse than climbing onto machines in ways that Blair really didn't understand how he got there, Blair eventually found a move that would slot quite well and was incredibly easy to learn. Bite.

Standing and walking through the machines to one that could be used for this, Blair soon found one that would be useful for teaching Kaiser. It was a small machine with a padded bar close to the ground, and after giving it a quick squeeze a number lit up on the display, recording the strength of his grip.

Blair whistled and got Kaiser's attention before starting to walk him through the steps of learning the attack. While the dragon was capable of biting with a lot of force, Kaiser still needed to learn to call upon the esoteric energy that most dark types thrived on. While it should be instinctual for him to use, it would still take a bit of time for him to be able to call upon that energy at will. Blair leaned on a nearby machine while continuing to browse the database and occasionally encouraging Kaiser to try harder while Blair waited for any sign that Kaiser had called upon the dark energy he contained.

Eventually, Blair hears the sound of boots clicking on the tile floor coming into the room from farther in the building and looks up at the other trainer as they enter. He sees a blond boy close in age to him wearing an orange jacket, with a green serpentine Pokèmon walking behind him. A Snivy.

Blair walks forward to greet the other boy. "Hello there, nice pokèmon you have there."

The boy looks over towards Blair with a small smirk. "That he is. Who are you?"

"The names Blair, and back there," he points towards Kaiser still working on the machine, "is Kaiser."

"The name is Trip. So that's your only Pokèmon?"

Blair sighs. "We only started yesterday, and it took a while to get all the way here."

Trip inclines his head. "Well, I only started three days ago, and I've already caught a second Pokèmon." He taps a pokéball on his belt, in shades of blue and white.

"Want to battle? I'm sure Kaiser would want to stretch his legs after training so long."

Trip shakes his head. "No, Snivy's already had a fight and I don't trust my other catch in a fight yet. He's a vicious thing. Maybe if we run into each other again later on, but now isn't a good time."

Blair nods in acceptance. "Well goodbye then."

Trip also nods stiffly at him, before walking towards the front hall with Snivy on his heels. "Bye."

Blair turns back towards Kaiser when he hears the machine start to beep. Walking quickly over towards it, he sees the machine is starting to register trace amounts of the unique energy that Dark-type Pokèmon can channel. Smiling, he encourages Kaiser to keep going as he watches the monitor.

An hour later and Kaiser had gotten a rudimentary control over the move, enough to use a basic version in battle. Blair moved towards the entrance hall and signed out from the Battle Club, moving towards the door and opening it to a large crowd gathering in the town.

Looking around for a sign for what's happening, Blair notices Cheren in the crowd and starts to make his way towards his friend with Kaiser by his side. Getting up to Cheren by pushing his way through, he sees that everyone is surrounding a group of people. Black and white banners adorned with a blue symbol like a P crossed with a Z stand in front of a group of people wearing armor like knights of yore.

Just as Blair gets close to Cheren's place in the crowd, a figure walks up between the knights. An older man with long green hair with three spikes upward, wearing an elaborate cloak. Blair hears an odd noise from Kaiser as the dragon suddenly perks up before running into the crowd and disappearing.

Blair immediately starts to push through the crowd in the direction his partner ran off in, as the man begins to speak.

"My name is Ghetsis. I am here representing Team Plasma. Today, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to talk to you about Pokémon liberation..."

The rest of the speech was tuned out by Blair as he continues his search, as are the murmurs of the crowd. Hearing the growls and barks that Blair associated with Kaiser coming from the side of the park, near the edge of the crowd. Reaching the more sparsely packed area, Blair can finally see his partner.

Kaiser was bouncing around and making playful growling sounds towards another teen, who appeared slightly older than Blair. The teen had long green hair tied in a ponytail beneath his black baseball cap, and was fiddling with a square puzzle on his hip while watching Kaiser attentively. Sitting next to the teen was a black cat lounging lazily on the bench.

Walking up towards Kaiser, Blair calls out his name in relief. "Kaiser! This is where you ran off to."

Kaiser bounces towards Blair while growling a greeting, with the teen suddenly switching his gaze onto Blair with shock visible in his eyes. Deciding to thank the teen for watching over his partner, Blair turns his attention away from his partner even as he begins to pet Kaiser.

"Thanks for watching him, who knows how far he would have run off if you hadn't been here", Blair says gratefully.

The teen finally seems to compose himself, before beginning to speak at a rapid rate. "Your friend was very interesting to talk to, so it was no matter."

Blair nodded, because to him even if you couldn't hear their words Pokémon always were so expressive that you could usually tell what they were thinking. "Well still, thank you..."

The teen stands up and begins to leave, with the feline yawning as it starts to trail behind the teen. He speaks up once more in the oddly fast manner that seemed to be his regular pattern of speaking. "N. And thank you for introducing me to such an interesting person Kaiser. I'll see you two again some other time."

Blair frowns in confusion at the retreat back of the odd teen. How did N know his partner's name when he never said it?

Realizing the crowd had started to disperse, with the people who were speaking nowhere to be seen. Gathering himself, Blair decides to carry Kaiser back with him so he doesn't run off again as he goes to speak with Cheren.

Getting up to his friend, Blair places Kaiser back on the ground with an exasperated request for him to not run off again. Now getting a closer look at Cheren, he realizes how unhappy he looks.

"What happened?"

"Were you paying attention to that speech, Blair?"

Blair shook his head. "Kaiser ran off into the crowd. Kinda zoned out while trying to look."

Cheren grumbled out an answer. "Of course you weren't. They were a bunch of idiots who think that Pokémon would be better off without people when we're partners that depend on each other."

Blair raises an eyebrow."I'm pretty sure that opinion pops up randomly online all the time and goes nowhere, and I know you've seen it before."

Cheren waves a hand towards the other people in the town square, all murmuring to each other in small groups "Because people are actually thinking about it. This isn't just some stupid article for people to laugh about even if the contents the same. There's a face to it this time, and I think that's making all the difference."

Blair rolls his eyes. "It'll be fine Cheren, people will realize it's stupid on their own when they have time to think about it. Now let's see if Bianca is going to show up anytime soon so we can finish the competition."

"Sure. Let's get out of here."

And with that, the two, followed by Kaiser, walk towards where Route 1 opened into the town proper. While the two wait they end up discussing the events that occurred on the road to Accumula Town, with Blair going first.

"Pretty much nothing happened on this end, besides a tiny bit of training for Kaiser."

Cheren sighed and adjusted his glasses."A Pokémon tried to grab my stuff from my bag when I was taking a break. Ended up hours off course trying to get it back before I caught the thing."

Looking down at Cheren's belt and seeing the second Pokéball active on his waste, Blair asks "What was it?"

"A Purrloin and I'd show you but I think you would prefer keeping all your belongings."

"At least you caught something, I didn't get a chance to catch much of anything."

Cheren smirks at him. "So at least I beat you in the competition then."

Blair grimaces and nods. No matter how much he wished otherwise that was correct.

After a few more minutes of meaningless conversation between the two friends, they noticed Bianca approaching in the distance and soon all three were together again.

Bianca, still catching her breath from sprinting here, starts talking. "Soooo, you two made it here alright?"

"I had a completely boring time, but Cheren nearly had his stuff swiped by a Pokèmon before he caught it."

Bianca nods. "Well, Bors and I managed to catch a new friend!"

Cheren looked towards her with dread. "Bors?"

Bianca grinned. "Tepig decided he wanted a nickname!"

Cheren gives her a dead stare. "Did it _have_ to be a pun, that is just horrible."

Bianca's grin gets larger. "He already loves it so it's not getting changed. Now I think we have a competition to complete?"

Blair examines the sky and nods. "Let's head to the Pokémon Center first. It's getting late."

The other two agree and they find themselves sitting in a booth while their Pokèmon are checked over.

Blair speaks up first. "I'm certainly last, seeing as I caught absolutely nothing."

Bianca grins at him. "Yup! I caught Lily, and Cheren got that Purrloin so we tied for first while you lost utterly."

After that the three went on to have a casual conversation, about everything and anything until the check-ups were done and they went to the rooms they were allowed to stay in.

Walking into the room, Blair releases Kaiser. The small dragon yawns, and starts to stumble towards a place it could sleep before being scooped up from the floor by Blair and placed on the bed. The sleepy dragon curled itself into a ball and started to fall asleep while Blair got ready for bed. Crawling into bed next to the squirming dragon, Blair runs a finger through his fur and hums in an attempt to calm Kaiser enough to fall asleep. After a few moments, his partner began to settle down and drift off to sleep.

Waking up the next morning, Blair rouses Kaiser from his sleeping position curled up over his feet and gets dressed in his regular clothes while laying out a food dish for his partner. Getting ready with little difficulty, other than having to catch Kaiser to prevent him from falling off the bed to get to the food.

The two then entered the main lobby to see Cheren sleepily sitting in a booth, drinking a cup of coffee as his starter eats next to him on the floor.

Sliding into the seat across from Cheren without being acknowledged, Blair snorts at his friend.

"You know you have bed-head, right?"

Cheren's empty hand goes to start fixing his hair, before realizing it was completely normal and grumbling at his now-smiling friend.

"You're a horrible friend and I disown you."

Laughing, Blair pulls out his Pokédex to browse. "So moody! Just drink your coffee, we can probably head out once Bianca's up and moving."

Cheren inclines his head and the two's conversation tapers off into companionable silence, with no sound between the two but the sipping of a drink and the clattering of a keyboard.

After about fifteen minutes of waiting, Bianca dashes down the hallway into the lobby with two Pokémon behind her. Both recognized her starter, but they hadn't met the small tan dog that was attempting to hide behind her leg.

Sitting down, with her team going to the other Pokémon and starting a conversation of sorts, Bianca cheerfully greets her fried.

"Heya, you two! Ready to get going on to Striaton City!"

"Yes! Any plans?"

"Of course."

Bianca grins with obvious excitement. "I wanna go see if I can find any more Pokémon to add to the team! Cheren, didn't you say you had something special to do there besides the gym?"

Cheren inclines his head in a slight nod. "Yes, as Valedictorian I was invited to be a guest for the local Trainer School."

Blair nods, having vaguely remembered Cheren mentioning it sometime last week. "Since we're all heading there, want to travel together?"

His two friends agreed and after breakfast, they rushed to gather their things so they could get started. Striaton was only 3 days time if they keep a quick pace and they were excited

In a few day's time, they would be getting their first Gym Badge.

**I Live! I am SO sorry that this took so long to get updated, it fought me emso/em many times just to get this much and I had to completely scrap some scenes and rewrite other to make it into this form. The original plan for this, back just after I release the last chapter, was quite different than this and went all the way to before the first gym. BUT, I figured it would be better to get this out. I have a few things to say here as notes.**  
**1\. I have not yet abandoned this(duh), it just takes me awhile to write enough to feel good posting it. With everything happening in the world right now, I hopefully will have more time to work on this.**  
**2\. Did I do N well enough? Him and his "Purrloin" were a bit of a sticking point. I felt a fight here didn't make sense, so I just went with vague foreshadowing(hilariously this is a scene I changed up, but the first scene was just a different kind of foreshadowing.)**  
**3\. Please, review/PM your opinion on the debate of the Grass Vs. Poison for his upcoming team member. It won't be his first capture(that one was set in stone when I started writing), but will likely only be 2-3 chapters after this one.**  
**Reviews DO help, my motivation needs a kick in the pants to get it working right that your feedback would help with.**  
**See you next time, for Blair's 2nd team member to join the squad!**


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